No. Support tickets would just clog up the support system unnecessarily, because the Asims don't have anything to do with FI running. When Fi runs be it normally or through dev intervention, everyone will get it. The bugbase is sufficient.

To run the script manually it has to be done directly on the server in a console and currently there is only one person I know of that has that kind of access that can do that and we are waiting on him

Well Lex, you're forgetting, FI not running was an intentional feature, just like manually running FI and it being difficult is an intentional feature. So, therefore by that, it taking 5+ days just to manually run is an intentional feature!

We cant make a script to run it manually from the web page. It takes so long to run it breaks. The only way to do it is by running a script through the servers console but yes make assumptions on how you know how it is supposed to work. You can contact Zhao and try to push him to drop what ever he is doing to come in here and run it manually or you can wait for him to do it when he has time.

No no Kendall. I understand how FI works just fine. I know it has to run against hundreds of thousands of records in the database for all of the facilities and that this would generally cause PHP to time out due to the amount of time it'd take. What people are edgy or annoyed about is the fact that there's absolutely no way to do this without SSHing into the server. There are functions in PHP itself that should (no guarantees, of course) allow you to run the script in the background, are there not?

For example, while not the most clean way, you can use: http://us2.php.net/function.exec exec() to run a script in the background by sending the output to a file. Would that not work in our situation? Of course, we wouldn't be able to get this fix added to the game until Zhao (who I'm assuming is the sole individual you're referring to here) is able to get back on and implement such a thing, but it's not impossible to run the script from an admin's side. It's just not implemented.

You can make them run as a background process, you can also break the script up there is all kinds of ways. I run parts of the monthly run as a personal script on dev similar to that of a ... race car. It runs in parts. And I also have to delete the script when done or I get bitched at. lol If they did implement it, it would be restricted to those who already can and we would still be discussing this. Then it comes to need, how many times do you see FI go down server wide. So then ask would you really need it verses the times the tool would be used or just keep it the way it is now. Then I was told that Zhao and someone else was working on timers at the time FI didnt run so it might be a result of them and they just forgot to do something.

The reason I get pissy is bc I feel people are inconsiderate little pricks that has no respect for the people who do clear these issues at no cost like it is owed to them. Its like the stuck timers. You know some poor bastard has to go in there and manually clear them. Not fun to do, I do not care who you are.

And forgot: The #swc-dev channel was made open to all now if you want better explainations, or reasons you can ask the horses ass eeeer I mean devs your questions there.

My thought was do something like the art team accept tool. Require 2 people to approve running FI on the off chance that it does break. That way the players that depend on FI for who knows what reason are able to get their FI run as possible.

I mean, I personally entirely understand the reason not to give the function to every asim/dev/what ever. It makes perfect sense because something like FI would be extremely painful to reverse and if someone spammed running FI... Yeah. But, there should still be some sort of way for any dev to kick start the script after having a second dev approve it. Though, I suppose at this point, this should probably go into a suggestion more than anything else >.>

Also, I don't really think anyone intentionally means to disrespect you guys. It's not your fault that FI broke, and you can't help that you're unable to run it. I'm sure most people understand that, it's just the fact that there hasn't been any official news on it outside of the "FI didn't run, no support tickets please". Sometimes it's good to hear "Hey, we're trying to get this fixed, but currently we can only do it with the assistance of Zhao/whoever can SSH into the server. Please be patient while we work on getting a solution."

“Require 2 people to approve running FI on the off chance that it does break.”

This type of thing is completely useless with the current admin team, by the way. For customs it makes sense because they tend to be a bit more subjective. But for decisions to run something, the current admin team is generally in agreement in most situations already, and the admin team is also larger and there would always be two people in agreement or one person capable of persuading one other at any given time. :p

Either way, overall I agree we need to have some alternatives when shit hits the fan, as we've seen with action timers and similar situations over the past months. I'd rather see another person like Sel being given access to these things as backup for Zhao. We'll see!

Ok I see the FI was run and payment sent out. But am I the only one that got a huge decrease from what I normally get? Also I noticed several of my facilities did not run a FI at all. If this is just me I will submit a ticket but wanted to check with others first.